The Sydney Morning Herald smh.com.au FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 333

Put a stop to silent suffering

Unrealistic ... pasteurised depictions of motherhood fail to prepare new parents for the adjustments and struggles they are likely to face. Photo: iStock

A tragic and avoidableevent was the catalyst forthis important charity,writes Peta Doherty.

The Gidget Foundation’smission is to start aconversation. It’s aconversation thatGidget, a woman fromSydney’s north shore,

didn’t live long enough to have.It was only after the young mother

of a nine-month-old ended her ownlife at The Gap 10 years ago that herloved ones discovered she was silentlybattling depression.

Following the tragedy, Gidget’sfamily and friends established thefoundation to raise awareness ofperinatal mood disorders and open aforum for frank discussion aboutmotherhood.

‘‘This is a woman with millions offriends, really close family, lovingparents and a fantastic husband, whowent and jumped off a cliff,’’ the chiefexecutive of the Gidget Foundation,Catherine Knox, says.

Knox and her husband, Dr VijayRoach, an obstetrician andgynaecologist, who is also thechairman of the Gidget Foundation,also suffered silently when Knoxexperienced postnatal depressionalmost 20 years ago.

‘‘My story is still current in thatwomen are still going throughexactly what I did,’’ Knox says. ‘‘It’stragic that in 18 years, things havenot moved on.’’

Since breaking their 10-year silenceand establishing the GidgetFoundation, the pair have dedicatedthemselves to educating women, thegeneral public and, importantly, themedical profession about perinataldepression and anxiety.

The Gidget Foundation is the onlyorganisation to focus primarily onraising awareness about perinatalmood disorders – depression andanxiety that occurs any time betweenconception and the end of the baby’sfirst year.

Postnatal depression alone affectsabout 15 per cent of Australian womenand about 25 per cent of their partners,yet many still suffer in silence.

The organisation also hopes toencourage the community to be moreopen about the difficulties associatedwith parenting.

‘‘Most people who have a baby willgo through some big adjustmentperiod, have difficulties andstruggle,’’ Roach says. ‘‘Surely if therewas more human interaction anddiscussion – ‘Gee, it’s hard to have a

baby, isn’t it?’ – I think that’ssomething that’s missing.’’

Perinatal depression can becaused by an array of biological,social and psychological triggers. It’sthose social triggers that Roachbelieves people can work on and talkabout, particularly the highexpectations that women put onthemselves when it comes tomotherhood, pregnancy andchildbirth.

‘‘It’s a fundamental feminist issue,’’

he says. ‘‘The whole thing is aboutsetting women up for failure.’’

How can women possibly succeed,he asks, when there’s a perceptionthat accepting pain relief duringchildbirth is a form of failure? ‘‘If youhad a caesarean section, you failed. Ifyou didn’t breastfeed, you failed . . .and you don’t even have to wait forthose events to happen to be terrifiedbefore you begin,’’ he says.

Knox, who co-wrote the handbookBeyond the Baby Blues, agrees.

‘‘Motherhood isn’t perfect, it’s messy– often out of control – and women whoare used to being in control of theirlives can think, ‘Oh my god, this isn’twhat it was supposed to be like.’ ’’

One of the problems of diagnosingand treating perinatal depression andanxiety, she says, is that generalpractitioners, who are often the firstpoint of contact, don’t always have theresources to deal with the condition.

‘‘The GPs practising medicine todayhave had no formal training in the

area,’’ she says. ‘‘If they don’t have theresources, they don’t start the process[of diagnosis and treatment].’’

To close this gap in awareness, theGidget Foundation regularly speaks atmeetings of general practitioners andeducates medical students.

One of the organisation’s majorachievements has been establishingantenatal screening at the NorthShore Private Hospital through agrant from the nib foundation.

National guidelines recommend

women be assessed at least onceduring pregnancy to detect perinataldepression and anxiety risk factors.While screening programs aresignificantly increasing in publichospitals, the Gidget Foundation’sEmotional Wellbeing Program is thefirst available in a private hospital.

The deputy chief executive ofbeyondblue, Dr Nicole Highet, saysit’s important that the 30 per cent ofwomen who give birth in privatehospitals be screened.

‘‘[These] women deserve theopportunity to have the same accessto screening as people in the publicsystem,’’ she says.

The Gidget Foundation has alsoproduced a DVD, Behind the Mask: TheHidden Struggle of Parenthood, withthe Post and Antenatal DepressionAssociation. But despite theseachievements, Roach stresses that thefoundation’s main role is to get peopletalking. ‘‘If you don’t start theconversation, you won’t get anywhere.’’

Supportunderone roofA new refuge promisesto help stressed newparents — it just needsto be built, writesMelinda Ham.

GIDGET House – named after anorthern beaches woman whocommitted suicide after sufferingfrom postnatal depression – hopes tosave other women and their partnersfrom the same fate.

The chairman of the GidgetFoundation, Dr Vijay Roach, hopesthe house will be a refuge whereparents can get support, counsellingand medical care under one roof.

The charity plans to build the house– only the second of its kind in thestate – on a site that is yet to bedetermined, in Sydney’s north.

‘‘If women have PND [postnataldepression] or anxiety and choose toask for assistance, it can take themthree weeks or more to get anappointment with a psychologist or apsychiatrist and then counselling,’’Roach says.

‘‘What they need is a one-stopshop and that’s what Gidget Houseis offering.’’

Gidget House is a joint effortwith Karitane, the parents’ andbaby support charity. Karitanealready runs Jade House, whichprovides a social worker,psychiatrist, psychologist andparentcraft training (settling,feeding and mother-babyinteraction) and facilitates supportgroups for parents.

The chief executive of Karitane, RobMills, says Jade House provides a‘‘homelike environment with akitchen, lounge and bedrooms thatare turned into a nursery’’.

Gidget House hopes to replicatethis successful model and spawnsimilar projects across the state.

Roach is trying to raise funds toeither build Gidget House fromscratch or buy and renovate anappropriate existing building. He saysonce the building is up, running costswon’t be too high.

‘‘We will only need a receptionistand two full-time midwives or nurses.The sessions with the otherprofessionals will be by referral andpay for themselves,’’ he says.

Roach is also keen to involve peoplewho have gone through PND andanxiety to help other sufferers.

‘‘People who have lived theexperience themselves, who are nowwell, can really connect with thosewho are going through it and create asense of community.’’

Diagnosis lifts veil on mum’s misery

Relieved ... NSW Treasurer Mike Baird and his wife, Kerryn. Photo: Edwina Pickles

Recognition and medication enable a power couple to move on with their lives, writes Bellinda Kontominas.

‘I knew I wanted helpbut I didn’t know whatwas wrong.’ Kerryn Baird

THE NSW treasurer, Mike Baird, andhis wife, Kerryn, didn’t recognise thesigns of postnatal depression in themonths after their first child, Laura,was born almost 15 years ago. Butthey knew something was wrong.

Kerryn, who had a successful careerin marketing and loved to entertain athome, would invite friends over butspend the visit crying in her bedroom.

‘‘It was quite insidious,’’ she says. ‘‘Itwas like this dark cloud descended onour life. I knew I wanted help but Ididn’t know what was wrong.’’

Mike, who was working as a seniormanager at Deutsche Bank at thetime, felt bewildered by his wife’serratic behaviour but recalls beingdetached from the situation becauseof his long hours at the office.

‘‘When I got home, I didn’t knowwhat I was going to get – whetherKerryn was going to be OK or angry orupset,’’ he says. ‘‘If I’m honest, I haveregrets that pretty much after the

birth, it was a sense of life is back tonormal, I need to go back to work.’’

The pair are speaking publicly for thefirst time about their experience withpostnatal depression and theconfusion and frustration it brought.

By doing so, they hope other parentssuffering in silence might seek help.

Six months after the birth, Kerrynwas finally diagnosed.

At the end of Laura’s scheduledmedical check, the nurse turned toKerryn. ‘‘She said, ‘How are you?’ andI just burst into tears,’’ Kerryn says.

She was sent to her doctor, whodiagnosed postnatal depression andprescribed medication.

‘‘I can remember that moment sovividly of absolute relief that thisthing had a name and I wasn’t justturning into a horrible person,’’ saysKerryn, who also went to groupcounselling for two months. ‘‘Thingsjust really got better from there.’’

When the time came to have hersecond child, Cate (now 12), Kerryn

was put on medication before thebirth, ‘‘so when the baby came, I wasin a good place’’. It worked and in2003, the couple had son Luke.

Both parents say it is important formothers to talk about their concernsand seek help as soon as possible.Mike also encourages fathers to bemore connected with their partnerand the new baby and to realise thatwork can wait.

‘‘I missed the opportunity to reallyengage with my child and, at the sametime, failed to support Kerryn,’’ hesays. ‘‘I wasn’t there when she startedto struggle and my disengagement, Istrongly feel, contributed.

‘‘I’m not saying the postnataldepression wouldn’t have come but Iwould have seen the signs earlier.’’

SPECIAL REPORT

GIDGET FOUNDATION

Star struggles� Actor Brooke

Shields describeshow she feltduring her battlewith postnataldepression: ‘‘Thiswas a sadness of a shockinglydifferent magnitude. It felt as ifit would never go away.’’

� Bryce Dallas Howard, thevampire Victoria from theTwilight series, also sufferedgreatly frompostnataldepression: ‘‘Myhusband beganshooting atelevision seriesand late eveningswhen he returned home, I wouldmeet him at the door,shaking with fury ... Iscreamed expletives at him,behaviour he had neverexperienced in the sevenyears we had been together.’’

� Gwyneth Paltrow was fine afterthe birth of her daughter butonce her son, Moses, was born,her moodchangeddramatically forfive months: ‘‘Iwas confrontedwith one of thedarkest and mostpainfully debilitating chapters ofmy life ... I just didn’t know whatwas wrong with me. I felt reallyout of my body.’’ Melinda Ham

A Herald Special Report ■ Editor Bellinda Kontominas, bkontominas@smh.com.au ■ Advertising Jessica Lamb, 9282 2307, jessica.lamb@fairfaxmedia.com.au ■ Readerlink 9282 1569